Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment: consultation

What this consultation is about

We are undertaking this consultation to help the Chair of the Independent Review make recommendations about Adult Disability Payment.

The consultation asks for information about people’s experiences about Adult Disability Payment. It is mainly meant for people with lived and living experience of accessing – or trying to access – Adult Disability Payment, although anyone can respond.

A separate call for evidence that is mainly meant for organisations to respond to is also available.

The consultation has 12 sections:

1. Take-up of Adult Disability Payment

2. Eligibility check

3. Pre-application support for Adult Disability Payment applications

4. Rules about who can get Adult Disability Payment

5. The fluctuating conditions section of the Adult Disability Payment application

6. Asking about a person’s daily living activities

7. Decision-making

8. Re-determinations

9. Review periods and indefinite awards

10. Processing times

11. Changes in people’s circumstances

12. Other considerations

We are interested in your comments and ideas so there is space left at the end for you to provide your views if they are not covered by the consultation questions.

You can complete as many of the questions as you like in each of the twelve sections, or you can skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

What this consultation is not about

We will make use of the responses to the Consultation on the Mobility Component which was published in January 2023^[5]. This is why there are no questions specifically asking about the mobility component of Adult Disability Payment within this consultation.

We recognise that gathering supporting information to support an application for Adult Disability Payment is a key issue for many people. An evaluation of supporting information was undertaken by the Scottish Government as part of its disability benefits evaluation strategy^[6]. The supporting information evaluation gathered the views of people and was published by the Scottish Government in September 2023. The Independent Review will make use of these findings, which is why no specific questions on supporting information have been included in this consultation.

References to Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

This consultation talks about PIP in some places because many people will be familiar with PIP and may be less familiar with Adult Disability Payment. Where we do talk about PIP, this is to highlight what we understand are the differences between PIP and Adult Disability Payment. We are particularly interested to hear from people with experience of both benefits.